At present, people worldwide are facing the negative impacts of climate change. On top of that, Bangladesh is one of the most climate vulnerable countries. Many climate migrants from rural vulnerable areas now choosing to seek refuge in slums of cities in Bangladesh. The study has identified the WASH condition of the selected slums in Rajshahi district through WASH poverty index, a multidimensional, WASH-focused, thematic indicator that is also a powerful tool for planning, targeting and prioritizing WASH challenges. Through integrated analysis of WASH and poverty linkages, the index assists to identify key issues which can guiding policymakers towards appropriate action. The index itself is an agglomeration of 3 different indices and few more subindices comprising them. Among those, water poverty index (WPI) accounts for availability, accessibility, water points, use of water and relevant environment. The second indicator, sanitation poverty index (SPI), considers access, capacity, and use. Lastly, hygiene poverty index (HPI) deals with water safety plan, food hygiene, personal hygiene, and domestic hygiene. Weightage of the sub-indices have been determined by literature review and experts’ opinion. The indices and WASH poverty index is measured using the method of multivariative summation and arithmetic mean respectively. While the SPI and HPI both are lowest in the slum named Ashrayan, WPI is the lowest in Char Christan Para. Almost half of the slum dwellers of Char Christan don’t have access to pure water. Interestingly, 67% respondents from all slums using shared toilets, and more than half respondents considered the toilets unhygienic, SPI of all slums are close to zero. Based on the study, people are most likely to maintain hygiene, but to do so is difficult due to economic crisis and lack of service provision. Overall, though Ashrayan has the lowest WASH poverty index, each slum is lagging behind mainly in maintaining a standard level of sanitation facilities and hygiene.
Research Article
Developing Evidence on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities in the Climate Vulnerable Slums through WASH Poverty Index: A Case Study on Selected Slums in Rajshahi City Corporation, Bangladesh
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2375337/v1
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Climate vulnerability
WASH Poverty
WASH conditions in slums
WASH Poverty Index
WASH Facilities
1.1 Background of the Study
Human sustenance needs water. Water is such a vital element in our lives, that it can shape society, habits and technology and interconnected relations surrounding it. In events of scarcity, water can enforce disproportional impacts through the existing societal hierarchy, gap of knowledge and technology. Informal settlements worldwide are some the least fortunate places in such crisis. Anthropogenic climate change in the recent decades is imposing incremental pressure on water resources worldwide. Natural disasters have become more frequent and abrupt, including water scarcity. Water crisis is becoming more rampant, aquifer and surface water pollution is deteriorating people’s health and apart from human, biodiversity is also endangered (Denchak and Turrentine, 2021). Impacts of all these accelerating changes in climate are causing disruption in people’s access to safe water supply, hygienic lifestyle, and suitable toilet facilities. The low-income people of urban areas of certain countries are the worst sufferers. Rajshahi is one of the most affected cities in Bangladesh due to climate change. Rising sea level, drought and few other impacts are estimated to make one out of seven people in Bangladesh migrate within 2050 (Climate Displacement in Bangladesh, 2021). Most of the climate migrants relocate to urban slums with low living standards of Dhaka, Rajshahi, Khulna and other big cities.
Under a three years project named “Composite Actions for Climate Migrants in Urban Slums (CACMUS)” which is being implemented by WaterAid Bangladesh and Village Education Resource Centre (VERC), around 10 thousand climate migrants from 10 slums in Rajshahi city will get access to WASH facilities such as clean water, community toilets, resilient and context specific facilities and other good hygienic assistance (Chowdhury, 2021). The key challenges detected in slums of Rajshahi regarding WASH issues are - lack of hygiene practices even if they have knowledge of it, and contamination of groundwater and nearby water bodies due to partially hygienic or unhygienic toilet facilities (Alam, Rahman, and Firoz, 2013).
To realize a more specific level of poverty of these WASH facilities, a WASH poverty index is formulated in this study. Physical availability, extent of access, capacity for sustaining access to water resources and the way water is used for different purposes are considered to determine water poverty index. Along with accessibility and affordability, slum dwellers’ financial ability to construct and repair hygiene sanitation facilities are also considered for sanitation poverty index. Along with consumption of hygienic food and water, personal and domestic household hygiene are also critical indicators of hygiene poverty index.
This study aims to develop the WASH Poverty Index in climate vulnerable slums of Rajshahi and also identify the issues causing WASH poverty in the slums. Providing WASH facilities in developing countries has always been a challenge for development agencies such as World bank, United nations, and many other international NGOs. A WASH index in the perspective of a developing country such Bangladesh is expected to help all those development agencies for taking interventions in vulnerable areas not only in Bangladesh, also in other developing countries around the world. As there is no prior work done in Bangladesh about developing WASH Poverty Index, this will help for further studies about WASH Poverty Index and better understand the impacts of climate change on WASH facilities. This study will help the decision makers relevant to the study area to prioritize the areas for WASH interventions.
However, the study has faced some constraints, such as the hostile situation created by spread of COVID-19 virus. Field visits could be more flexible and detailed if there were no constraints regarding the pandemic situation. If more slums, especially few well-off ones could be included in the study area, an inequality of WASH service provisions could be shown.
2.1 Climate Change and impacts all around the World
Due to the flourishment of industrial revolution and neoliberal growth economy since the mid-20th century, the climate is changing abruptly, causing various negative impacts (Earth Science Communications Team, 2021a). such as increasing temperature, decreasing sea ice, increasing sea level, more frequent droughts, heat waves, and other disasters (Earth Science Communications Team, 2021b) on Earth. All parts of the world, especially developing countries suffer the most as the residents rely a lot on natural resources (Climate change consequences, nd) which creates a possibility of increasing poverty rate of many developing countries (Skoufias, Rabassa, & Olivieri, 2011). Foreshadowing the impact of climate change is one of the most important challenges of recent time, about 24 million people around the world are compelled to migrate due to floods, famine and other environmental degradation processes (Wilkinson, 2002). It also has been projected that by 2050 the number of climate migrants would reach 200 million (Brown, 2008). Not only that, another 700 million would be under threat as 1 in every 11 people at that time has been predicted to be harmed by environmental factors (Christian Aid, 2007). Though poor people are the least responsible group of people for greenhouse gas emission, they have to suffer the most as climate change is eliminating benefits of development works and also creating economical imbalance around the world (Schramek, & Harmeling, nd). So, the negative impacts of climate change are estimated to be more severe in long run and the main victims will be the poor people
2.2 Climate Change affecting Bangladesh
Certain parts of this planet such as the Middle and far East including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have high possibilities to experience the severity of climate migration due to their large populations and relative poverty (Fernando et al., 2010). As far as Bangladesh is concerned, the main reasons which are considered for the climate vulnerability are uneven development, climate hazards, poor economic growth, and lack of employment in rural areas, and rapid urbanization (Islam, 2007) as well as geographic position of Bangladesh lying in foot of the Himalaya till the Bay of Bengal (Denissen, 2012). In the sixth annual Climate Change Vulnerability Index, Bangladesh has been predicted to face the economic impacts of climate change most intensely. Though Bangladesh is a low energy consuming country that emits less than 0.1% of total emitted greenhouse gas worldwide (Huq, 2001), the unfortunate effects of climate change such as high temperature, sea level rise, cyclones and storms, salinity intrusion, heavy monsoon downpours etc. have hindered the overall economic development scenario of the country to a great extent. Of all impacts of climate change, water related issues are the most significant one mainly due to more frequent flooding and droughts (Agrawala et al,2003). Forced migration of people throughout Bangladesh losing their homes, lands, property, and livelihoods has been one of the worst intense impacts of climate change (Haque and Salehin, 2019). Bangladesh receives over a billion dollars donation each year to resolve climate related problems (Agrawala et al., 2003).
2.2.1 Cities facing Climate Migrants in Bangladesh
Many cities of Bangladesh are endangered by effects of climate change, mainly due to lack of proper preventive infrastructure, uncontrolled rapid urbanization, growing population growth, and inadequate adaptive measures. Of all the affected sectors, water and power supply, and the public health system are in the most dangerous position in urban areas of this country (Shahid, Wang, Harun, Shamsudin, Ismail, & Minhans, 2016). People of coastal regions are the most affected victims of climate change effects, mainly sea level rise and frequent storm surges (Denissen, 2012). Most people who migrate due to natural disasters tend to move to urban areas such as Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi; and they are mostly from coastal regions (Rana, & Ilina, 2021).
Around 4,00,000 poor migrants move to urban slums of Dhaka city each year (McDonnel, 2019). Overall, around 40% urban residents live in slums or squatters in Bangladesh. The living standard is very low in these unplanned climate change slums (Denissen, 2012). Poor sewerage network, air/water borne diseases and unorganized power supply are common occurrences in these slums (McDonnel, 2019). The slum dwellers have to face vulnerability in five aspects- physical, social, economic, environmental, and political (Hossain, and Rahman, 2020). Having organized plans for these climate migrants or climate refugees is a big challenge for coastal countries like Bangladesh (Ahsan, 2011).
2.3 Rajshahi: One of the most Climate Vulnerable Cities of Bangladesh
Among the cities of Bangladesh, Rajshahi is one the most climate vulnerable cities which is situated on the north bank of the giant river Padma being one of the warmest cities in the country (Haque and Salehin, 2019). The people residing on the bank of river Padma have to face frequent floods. Having huge char land on the other side of the river, the highest temperature in the city is more often recorded. As a result, frequent storms and thunderstrucks have occurred in the city. Therefore, the livelihood of the people living beside river Padma which is a climate vulnerable land is under great threat (Haque and Salehin,2019). The city, a victim of drought, humidity, flood, storm, river erosion, is currently existing in a critical situation of the climate impacts (Rahman, 2015). Every year, a decent number of migrants come to Rajshahi City and most of them are driven to the city due to erosion of Padma. Though Rajshahi is one of the major cities to receive climate change affected migrants, the city itself is facing issues due to rapid urbanization, increasing population and climate change (Fontaine, n.d.). Over two-thirds (70.3 percent) of the slum dwellers in Rajshahi City originated from Rajshahi district who used to live on the bank of Padma ending up in slums and squatter settlements for shelter on arrival. The rural migrants are poor and unskilled. As a result, the job facilities of Rajshahi are not so favorable. So, they tend to end up in the informal sector with low wages. Poor migrants of Rajshahi don’t get much economic and social benefits or enough access to basic needs even if they contribute to the growth of the region (Farhana, Rahman, and Rahman, 2012).
2.3.1 Slums in Rajshahi facing Climate Migrants
Rapid but unplanned urban growth is causing many people of Rajshahi to live in slums in marginal lands of hazard prone areas (Kafy, 2020). Poverty and environmental degradation both are interrelated (Moral, 2017). Common issues faced by slum dwellers of Dhaka city due to climate change are excessive heat, disturbance in work due to excessive rainfall, unorganized drainage and waste management system, disturbance in utility supplies along with health problems (Amjad, 2019). Almost the same type of scenario is observed in slums of Rajshahi too. The slums that are near rivers are also at the risk of getting flooded (Rashid, Gani, and Sarker, 2013). In case of flooding or water logging in the slums, dwellers tend to make high bamboo or move belongings to the roof of their house (Rashid, Gani, and Sarker, 2013). Many also use brick platforms to raise their furniture inside dwelling units. Slum dwellers living by slums near Padma River consider the unusual rise and fall in temperature due to climate change as a major cause of suffering (Haque and Salehin, 2019). Apart from this, it has been also observed that the eastern slums in this area get flooded almost every year (Haque and Salehin, 2019). Making rajshahi city climate-resilient is a need of time specially for the sake of these marginal people.
2.3.2 WASH facilities in slums of Rajshahi
WASH indicates access to improved drinking water, sanitation and practicing hygienic activities to support human development which goes along with Sustainable Development Goal no 6 (Clean water and sanitation) (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, n.d.). The overall public health in the northern region, including the vast Barind tract has seriously been threatened by the adverse effects of climate change. It has been predicted that water and sanitation problems would be under threat from the impacts of changing climate (Jahan, 2018). In slums, wash facilities are very poor. Climate change affecting rainfall and surface water, results in insufficient access to pure water and sanitation facilities (Rashid, Gani, and Sarker, 2013). Decreasing rainfall due to climate change, dying Padma river due to Farakka badh and lowering ground water level as a result of these is considered as the most important environmental issue of Rajshahi (Conrad, 2010). Rajshahi Water and Sewerage Authority (R-WASA) oversees panning, designing and providing water supply system in Rajshahi town (Jahan et al., 2015). However, the garbage is collected mostly by city corporation, tubewell is the most common clean water source along with public tab as water supply while water of ponds and rivers are polluted as waste water lines are directly discharged there, both sanitary and slab latrines are used which are mostly private, and the sanitary condition is improving gradually mainly because of UNDP and Government action plans in slums of Rajshahi (Moral, 2017). Moral (2017) also stated that a few residents living in a slum near waterbody like to use open space near it for toilet activities causing air and water pollution. Slum dwellers’ access to services like water supply, hygienic sanitation degrades specially during disasters (Rashid, Gani, and Sarker, 2013). Though many poor people are migrating to Rajshahi and living in urban slums, it is tough to protect them from further inconveniences without financial opportunities (Conrad, 2010).
3.1 Basic Concept and Definition
There have been different methods used for water poverty index world-wide such as the conventional composite index approach, alternative approach-the gap method, matrix approach, simple time- analysis approach (Sullivan,2002). But there was no certain method for WASH poverty index. Then Giné Garriga and Pérez Foguet developed a multidisciplinary method which has been appreciated world-wide and being used to identify the level of poverty in WASH Facilities. It is an integrated and multidisciplinary approach with a wide range of indicators which explore the link of wash and poverty. So, this WASH Poverty Index (WASH PI), multidimensional tool is presented as a thematic indicator which aims to support poverty alleviation while keeping water, sanitation and hygiene issues in focus (Garriga & Foguet, 2011). A brief description of each composite is given below:
The Water Poverty index (WPI) is developed on the Water Poverty Index (WPI) framework where a variety of contexts at different scales has been incorporated with (Garriga & Foguet, 2011). This composite differentiates the wider themes that reflect major challenges in low-income regions related to physical availability of water resources: (Resources, RWPI), extent of access to water (Access, AWPI), capacity for sustaining access (Capacity, CWPI), the ways of water is used for different purposes (Use, UWPI) and the environmental factors impacting on the ecology (Environment, EWPI). Environment-related aspects are mainly assessed by indicators of sanitation and hygiene indices. So, this component has been removed from the WPI structure to avoid the inclusion of redundant information.
The Sanitation Poverty Index (SPI) identifies the access to improved sanitation. Ideally, a toilet should be hygienic and private, accessible, available, affordable and of a culturally acceptable quality (United Nations General Assembly 2009). However, it is the consistent use of the facility which is related to health and environment. Therefore, SPI not only gauges the extent of access to sanitation, both in terms of accessibility and affordability (Access, ASPI), but assesses people’s financial ability to construct and repair the latrine (Capacity, CSPI). It considers those hygienic factors that include the usage of the facility (Use, USPI).
The Hygiene Poverty Index (HPI) is measured by the aggregation of four different components (Webb et al., 2006) representing different transmission routes through which fecal contamination may occur such as drinking-water (DWHPI), food (FHPI), personal hygiene (PHHPI); and domestic household hygiene (DHHPI).
The aggregation of each individual indicator in the structure of the sub-indices using the “Weighted Arithmetic Mean” WASH Index is calculated, since it incorporates three sub-indices.
3.2 Literature on WASH Poverty Index around the world
The World Bank has been working to assess the relationship of poverty, time, physical space and social space with drinking water, sanitation and hygiene along with the knock-on effects on a person’s life cycle. To better understand this relationship, this initiative undertook multidisciplinary research - developing innovative methods to appreciate the impacts of inadequate services on human development outcomes and identify the binding constraints to service delivery (The World Bank, 2019). Though it didn’t develop an aggregated index, the identification of sub-index and indicators considering different countries is really helpful to develop a WASH PI. In the report of the world bank, it has been shown the importance of link between Poverty and WASH services. Understanding this linkage has been helping the policy makers and development agencies to work for the betterment of WASH services deprived areas. In a case study of Kenya, a multidimensional WASH Poverty Index (WASH PI) has been developed to identify priority areas and guide appropriate action and policy-making towards improved service delivery (Garriga & Foguet,2011). In another work, to help improve water quality in inland regions impacted by The Tunisian revolution, a water poverty index with 5 components which are- resources, capacity, access, use and environment has been developed (Jemmali and Matoussi, 2013). For this, principal component analysis method has been utilized to put more weight to components with larger variance and to reject other components with very small variances. To help policy makers, a WASH index has been considered as a monitoring and assessment tool to understand the WASH condition of humanitarian refugee camps of Europe (Tsesmelis, Skondras, Khan, Kolokytha, & Karavitis, 2020). Here, WASH index has been considered a convenient and easy tool for decision makers.
3.3 Usefulness of WASH Poverty Index
This tool is usually employed for the simplification, quantification and provision of complex conditions to assess and rank national / regional/ local performance of various sites towards achieving specified goals (Bandura, 2005, 2008; Rogge, 2012; Davies and Isakjee, 2015). The main objective Of WASH PI is to facilitate communication among the respective authorities, help in decision and policy-making as well as implementation monitoring and evaluation and prioritize areas for WASH related intervention. For example, El-Gafy (2015) has explained development and use of water poverty index to be utilized as a holistic tool for conceptualizing an integrated water strategy for Egypt by guiding policymakers.
The Rajshahi City Corporation lists 20 slums with 51980 population given in CACMUS project proposal. There has been done a baseline survey in the project area to accumulate, synthesize and analyze information on the current situation at the slums of RCC with the aim to find out the scope of building overall resilience of the slums and meet the gaps of service attainment and provision. The slums have been ranked by the conditions of WASH facilities. After that, 10 slums were considered for intervention being duly addressed by slum situation analysis and in-depth field observation. Among them, top 5 slums from the selected list have been selected from the list of chosen slums for developing WASH PI.
Table 1 The list of selected slums
|
Name of the slum |
Location (Ward) |
Population |
|
Asrain |
02 |
2083 |
|
Choto Bonogram |
19 |
6200 |
|
Baze Kazla |
24 |
5105 |
|
Chalk Kristan Para |
17 |
2021 |
|
Char Satbari East |
29 |
1830 |
A recent study was conducted on the climate vulnerability hotspots on six fragile urban systems (water supply, biodiversity, health, economy, solid waste management, and wastewater) where the selected slums have aligned with the most vulnerable regions (Map 1). Among these, Chalk kristan Para is affected by all the six fragile urban systems while Asrain and baje kajla are affected by four and other two slums are affected by three fragile urban systems.
Income range of 71% of the slum dwellers who participated in the survey are between 5000 to 10000 which is very low to lead even a minimum standard of life. The figure below illustrates the income distribution of the slum dwellers surveyed. Most households have only one bread earner and in 45% households, he is a day laborer. Other prominent occupations of slum dwellers are rickshaw/van pullers and small businessmen. Though many households have more than one bread earner, they mostly pull rickshaw/vans, run small businesses or do other jobs. 93% slum dwellers have migrated from other places. While 48% slum dwellers think that their WASH facilities condition has improved than before, another 39% thinks the opposite.
5.1 Literature review
For the development of the concept, a lot of existing literature has been reviewed to know the different methods to calculate WASH Poverty index and importance of WASH Poverty Index and to determine the criteria in the context of Bangladesh.
5.2 Selection of study area
From baseline survey for the CACMUS project where slums have been ranked by the conditions of WASH facilities, top 5 slums from the list have been selected for study area.
5.3 Fixing sub-indices and indicators
WASH PI is aggregated from Water, sanitation and hygiene indices. Under the indices, there are also some sub-indices which consist of some indicators which have been fixed from previous studies keeping the context of Bangladesh in mind.
5.4 Data collection
The index has been developed by using primary data.
5.4.1 Questionnaire preparation: A questionnaire has been prepared to collect data from the selected slums in November,2021. Trained surveyors of WaterAid Bangladesh have conducted the surveys using simple random sampling method in the selected slum according to sample distribution. (ANNEXURE).
5.4.2 Sample size calculation: Probabilistic sampling has been done here with 95% confidence level,5% margin of error and 50% population proportion using following formula:
The sample size has been found 376.
5.4.3 Distribution of sample: The samples were distributed among the slums according to population. The distribution is shown below:
Table 2 The list of samples distributed in slums
|
Name of the slum |
Number of samples |
|
Ashrayan |
46 |
|
Choto Bonogram |
135 |
|
Baze Kazla |
111 |
|
Chalk Kristan Para |
44 |
|
Char Satbari East |
40 |
5.4.4 Field survey: Primary data was collected through questionnaire survey from individual household.
5.5 Determination of weightage
For the further calculation, the weightage of the indices and sub-indices must be fixed.
5.5.1 Literature review: To know the relative importance of the indices and subindices, some previous works about WASH have been reviewed.
5.5.2 Expert opinion: To determine the relative importance, opinions from officials from WaterAid Bangladesh have been taken as WaterAid Bangladesh has been working on WASH facilities in Bangladesh since 1986.
Table 3 The list of indicators
|
INDEX |
SUBINDEX |
INDICATOR |
WEIGHTAGE |
|
Water |
Resources |
Availability of water for domestic purposes |
.555 |
|
drinking-water source all year-round |
|||
|
seasonality issues |
|||
|
Access |
access to improved water points |
.088 |
|
|
functionality issues of the water point |
|||
|
time spent in fetching water |
|||
|
time spent in queuing at the source |
|||
|
water carried by woman or by children |
|||
|
Payment for water |
|||
|
Capacity |
involved in water point management |
.108 |
|
|
management of the water point (user perception) |
|||
|
households paying for water |
|||
|
households contributing to the maintenance of the water point |
|||
|
Use |
Domestic water consumption rate |
.131 |
|
|
using main drinking water source for other domestic purposes |
|||
|
using main drinking-water source for other non-domestic uses |
|||
|
Environment |
Water quality (User Perception) |
.118 |
|
|
Protection of water resource |
|||
|
Conflict over water source |
|||
|
Sanitation |
Access |
households with no latrine because of a lack of economic resources (Affordability issues) |
.726 |
|
accessing a toilet facility located in the same compound |
|||
|
Capacity |
no latrine because of a lack of capacities to construct |
.112 |
|
|
accessing adequate skills for repairing the latrine; |
|||
|
households accessing adequate materials for repairing the latrine |
|||
|
use |
using improved sanitation facilities |
.162 |
|
|
latrine sanitary conditions |
|||
|
Hygiene |
Water Safety Plan |
households correctly carrying, handling and storing drinking water; |
.257 |
|
an adequate point-of-use water treatment |
|||
|
Food Hygiene |
a drying rack for plates and cups; |
.062 |
|
|
adequate washing behavior foods, plates -cups before and after cooking |
|||
|
Personal Hygiene |
adequate hand-washing device around the latrine; |
.378 |
|
|
members participated in hygiene promotion campaigns |
|||
|
adequate hand washing behaviour |
|||
|
Adequate health knowledge |
|||
|
Domestic Hygiene |
Presence of human/animal feaces in the compound |
.303 |
|
|
Animals running around freely in the compound |
|||
|
Times of Compound sweeping |
5.6 Calculation of WPI, SPI, HPI:
Using the following equation, WPI, SPI and HPI has been calculated.
Where,
Xi=Percentage of household of that indicator
Wi= Weightage applied to the indicator
5.7 Calculation of aggregated WASH PI:
After calculating three sub-indices, using the following equation, the final WASH PI has been calculated.
Where,
Wi =Weightage of sun-indices (WPI, SPI, HPI)
Xi=Value of WPI, SPI, HPI (given equally)
Later standard deviation for all indexes was calculated to summarize the variability of the dataset. All calculations are done in MS Excel.
To identify the relationship between poverty and access to WASH facilities, an integrated indicator approach, WASH Poverty Index which is relevant and effective to understand the poverty level of basic services has been demonstrated. To demonstrate the WASH PI, few indicators have been chosen under some sub index. The indices have been given weightage with the help of experts to obtain the index values which are presented below. The chart shows that among the subindices under water index, availability of water sources all year long gets the highest weightage (0.555) which is more than all other subindices combined. Having access to affordable sanitation facilities has the highest weightage among all sub-indices which is 0.726. Meanwhile, while calculating hygiene poverty index, personal and domestic hygiene are given the most weightage- 0.378 and 0.303 respectively. Though the water safety plan is given 0.257 weight, food hygiene which mainly involved cleanliness of utensils got the lowest weightage of all. Weightage of other subindices are also listed in the table below. It can be said from the scenario obtained from table 4 that policy makers should give attention to all three sectors especially towards sanitation and hygiene. The best achievable score 1, on the other hand 0 shows the highest level of poverty. The WPI, SPI, HPI is the lowest in Char Christan Para (.46557), Ashrayan (.073263) and Ashrayan (0.12925) respectively. These two slums should be given more attention in these sectors than other slums, though all the slums have poor scores in sub-indices. Overall, the Ashrayan has the lowest WASH poverty index indicating it to be the most vulnerable one. If the values of standard deviation are observed, it is visible that only WPI has a standard deviation over 0.1. Values of other indexes for all five slums are relatively consistent and low. But as far as WPI is concerned, while Baje Kajla has an index of 0.850298, it is less than average for Char Christan Para.
Table 4 The Sub-indices and index of five slums
|
|
Ashrayan (Ward 2) |
Choto Bongram (Ward 19) |
Baje Kajla (Ward 24) |
Char Christan Para (Ward 17) |
Chak Satbaria East (Ward 29) |
Standard Deviation |
|
WPI |
0.616367 |
0.753574 |
0.850298 |
0.465577 |
0.638873 |
0.145772 |
|
SPI |
0.073263 |
0.196711 |
0.099201 |
0.28261 |
0.113341 |
0.085928 |
|
HPI |
0.12925 |
0.327249 |
0.305424 |
0.389064 |
0.263952 |
0.097098 |
|
WASH PI |
0.272687 |
0.425419 |
0.417889 |
0.378705 |
0.338383 |
0.062954 |
6.1 Major findings on Water Poverty Index (WPI)
The lowest WPI is in Char Christan para where 44% people don’t get pure water and they face seasonal problems which create obstacles in water supply. Though they don’t need to pay for water, the residents here do not have access to safe water sources according to 44 % of respondents. People try to take care of their water points according to 84 % respondents of that slum but the water quality is not that good from the supply system. Almost 60% respondents have said water quality should be improved as water containing iron has been found in several water points. Among five slums, Baje Kajla has better WPI though the water sector in that area still needs attention. 28% respondents from this slum mentioned having conflicts while collecting water though almost all respondents agreed to have access to safe water sources. Conflicts over water points, unavailable pure water supply all year long, seasonal reasons such as water pollution in rainy reason and shortage in water supply during summer have been seen. These slums are mainly dependent on piped water supply. Considering the existing issues, availability of safe water and a reasonable number of water points could contribute in improving the status of water poverty index a lot better in all these slums. The rank assigned on the basis of the WPI indicates their need to be prioritized for having measures for better water provision (Table 5).
Table 5 The ranks of slums according to WPI
|
Slum name |
WPI |
Rank |
|
Char Christan Para (Ward 17) |
0.465577 |
1 |
|
Ashrayan (Ward 2) |
0.616367 |
2 |
|
Chak Satbaria East (Ward 29) |
0.638873 |
3 |
|
Choto Bongram (Ward 19) |
0.753574 |
4 |
|
Baje Kajla (Ward 24) |
0.850298 |
5 |
6.2 Major findings on Sanitation Poverty Index (SPI)
Ashrayan which is a combined project of city corporation and UNDP scores lowest in SPI. The SPI of the other four slums are close to 0 which means the present sanitary conditions are very poor. Almost all the people in those slums have access to toilets. While 67% respondents from all slums use shared toilets, 44% in Char Christan Para and 81% in Ashrayan. More than 50% of respondents think their toilet is not hygienic. Though the difference between the indices is not that much, policy makers can prioritize the slums for intervention according to the following ranking. However, such low index indicates the dire need of upgrading the sanitation facilities of these urban slums.
Table 6 The ranks of slums according to SPI
|
Slum name |
SPI |
Rank |
|
Ashrayan (Ward 2)) |
0.073263 |
1 |
|
Baje Kajla (Ward 24) |
0.099201 |
2 |
|
Chak Satbaria East (Ward 29) |
0.113341 |
3 |
|
Choto Bongram (Ward 19) |
0.196711 |
4 |
|
Char Christan Para (Ward 17 |
0.28261 |
5 |
6.3 Major findings on Hygiene Poverty Index (HPI)
Along with SPI, Ashrayan scores lowest in the HPI too. The condition of hygiene in the other four slums is not that satisfying either. Though almost 95% respondents have said that they collect and carry water safely,98% respondents do not treat water in any way. 98% respondents think hygiene should be maintained, but due to the economic crisis and proper service provision, they are unable to maintain this. With the help of some agencies, people earn money from domestic animals like cow, goat, sheep etc and 47 % of respondents have animal feces over premises. Condition of both personal and domestic hygiene is not much good though both of them have high weightage.
Table 7 The ranks of slums according to HPI
|
Slum name |
HPI |
Rank |
|
Ashrayan (Ward 2) |
0.12925 |
1 |
|
Chak Satbaria East (Ward 29) |
0.263952 |
2 |
|
Baje Kajla (Ward 24) |
0.305424 |
3 |
|
Choto Bongram (Ward 19) |
0.327249 |
4 |
|
Char Christan Para (Ward 17 |
0.389064 |
5 |
For a healthy and safe lifestyle, safe water, household sanitation and hygiene behavior are primary concerns. So, providing WASH services for people worldwide has become one of the top priorities on the international agenda. To assess the impact achieved throughout sector-related initiatives is important for the sake of evaluating efficiency and sound decision-making. Proper evaluation tools are necessary to measure performance and identify the most vulnerable areas. Many appraisal instruments used in policymaking appear too simple to capture the complexities of the sector, fail to address WASH issues in a comprehensive manner, and do not consider inequality in the provision of service, these policies come out inefficient. This may reduce the validity of the tool. So, in this study, the three sub-indices are examined individually for comparative policy analysis of WASH sectors.
This study identifies where WASH PI shows the arena of the improvements to enable the appropriate use of the index as an advocacy and management tool. While the indexes have identified priority areas for interventions, such as Ashrayan for sanitation and hygiene related measures and Char Christan Para for water facility related measures, the collected data also suggests some aspects that need special attention. For example, better management of water sources, improving shared toilets’ condition and arranging for individual households toilets if possible, providing enough assistance, services and infrastructure that help grow personal and community hygiene are dire needs of these slums. Wider application and testing of the index will provide the opportunity to promote the effective implementation of WASH PI in poverty alleviation strategies. It will help policy makers to prioritize the neediest area for interventions.
Incorporating WASH PI with relevant strategies and policies of Bangladesh such as national strategy for water supply and sanitation, and pro-poor strategy for water and sanitation sector can help improve the procedure to select suitable candidates for actions, allocation and subsidies.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgement
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Field data were collected by the trained surveyor of WaterAid Bangladesh. The experienced officers of WaterAid Bangladesh helped with all sorts of guidelines.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors
Contribution of Authors
Tahsin Tabassum: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Validation; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing.
Fatema-Tuz-Zohora: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resource: Software; Validation; Visualization; Writing- review and editing
Saief Manzoor-Al-Islam: Data curation: Supervision; Resources; Writing - review & editing.
Nazwa Tahsin: Data curation: Supervision; Resources; Writing - review & editing.
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